1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to banding machines and particularly to banding machines for skeins or balls of bunched or round threadlike material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Balls or skeins of bunched or wound material are typically bound together by wrapping with a band. The band encircles a portion of the skein or ball so as to slightly compress that portion of the skein or ball. Also, typically the bands will have indicia printed thereon such as shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings wherein such indicia is peculiar to a particular production run such as the color of the dye and the dye lot number in the case of skeins of wool.
It has been known to provide an automatic banding machine for placing bands around such skeins or balls of material. In such known machines, production rates are very slow due at least in part to back and forth translational movements required for machine elements which transport the skein or ball to be wrapped from an input conveyor to a wrapping station. Furthermore, glue at one end of the band must dry prior to removal of the banded skein or ball.
Furthermore, in known banding machines, the labels are first individually printed and then the printed labels are stacked in the banding machine. This operation is time consuming and requires an initial production run for printed bands followed by their separate use in the banding machine.